Harvard King Monument

As your readers reflect on their efforts to bring peace and harmony to their streets, please let me share one of the accomplishments of our city to do the same. We have dedicated a stately memorial and garden to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This memorial was so conceived that each day of the year, school children and civic leaders alike can come and speak of peace and understanding. We have joined to honor a fallen patriot who helped lift the burden of sanctioned bigotry from one group and the burden of hypocrisy from another. To combat the bigotry and hypocrisy that remain we must challenge ourselves to be so dedicated. At this memorial, our citizens can pledge themselves to the unfinished causes of peace and freedom that King so nobly advanced.

Perhaps in your reflections you may also find a need to further come together to build an inspirational place (with an audio history as well). Each day, hundreds--perhaps thousands--could come to hear King's call to humankind for peace and understanding. Come together to do this for him now so when young men and women shout out in hurt or anger from your streets or campus, "I am someone," King's spirit of freedom will ring back to them, not only from our distant plain, but from you city--a spirit flowing not from the "cup of bitterness and hatred," but founded upon the "stone of hope" King mentioned in his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. His is a spirit needed not just one day each year, but for all seasons. Roger Gadbois   Columbia, Missouri